2007 Indiana State Fair

This weekend we took Grant on his first trip to the Indiana State Fair. Now you may be thinking that a state fair in the midwest consists of little more than a chance to collect 100 different species of animal fecies in the soles of your shoes. And frankly, if you add the ability to eat virtually anything you could ever dream of out of a deep fryer, you'd have a pretty complete picture. Actually, that's not really true. The fair has evolved into more of a marketplace for "As Seen on TV" goods than anything else, which means that I have to keep Erin on a very short leash around the guys with Ginzu knives and microwave steamers.

This year we chose to try and hit the fair on a not-too-busy Saturday morning, in part to avoid the crowds and in part to avoid the 90+ degree temperatures that have scorched the state in the past few weeks. We succeeded on both counts. The temperature was in the 70's, and that portion of the population which is interested in seeing how many Budweiser's it takes to make you pass out on the Tilt-a-Whirl had not yet awakened from the previous evening's "Hey y'all...watch this..." style adventures.

One of the new additions to this year's fair was the "Hot Beef Sundae" offered by the Cattlemen's Club. As you may be able to see in the picture, it's a steaming hot plate of beef with a lump of white, ice cream-esque potatoes on top. One of the many things that boggles me about this picture, aside from the words Beef and Sundae appearing in close proximity, is that the Cattlemen chose to trademark the term "Hot Beef Sundae" as indicated by the little "TM" at the side of the phrase. I have a hard time believing there are people beating the door down to use this phrase. I checked, and somewhat shockingly there is someone apparently devloping a website for "hotbeefsundae.com" at the moment, although the .net variant was available. I can only imagine the horrors contained within hotbeefsundae.com.

The traditional fair ritual in our family is to see how many different types of goods I can eat and still sustain a pulse. For whatever reason, this year I held myself to a gyro and a milkshake. My father-in-law, on the other hand, tore the leg off something in the cattle barn and spent approximately 20 minutes feasting on his catch.


Among the new deep fried offerings this year were deep fried, chocolate dipped strawberries and deep fried Pepsi. I tried neither of these things, as I figure the food I eat in China may be lowering my life expectancy to the point where I can't afford to take my chances on carnival faire.

Grant enjoyed listening to some old time music played on dulcimers and banjos, and he also got the chance to enjoy a rather pleasant aquarium exhibit and some Amish furniture, as shown above. Erin and I took note of the number of what appeared to be adopted children wandering about the fair. I saw at least nine or ten Chinese girls with American parents, and I actually saw a number of African American kids with Caucasian parents. Our little Grant and Grace will not be alone in elementary school when they say, "So what's up with these white folks who are raising me?"

All in all, it was an enjoyable morning at the fair. I figure it's only going to be a short time before I hear Grant saying, "Dad...just another ten bucks for the midway. Come on...please!??" Therefore I have to enjoy the experience now while he's too young to realize that he's missing out on the rides. His time will come.